Computing devices (or systems) use mass storage devices to store data. Different storage options are available for computing devices to store data and retrieve data, for example, direct-attached storage (DAS), network attached storage (NAS), and storage area networks (SANs). A DAS system typically includes a plurality of storage drives/devices that are directly attached to a computing device (for example, a server) Common protocols used for DAS storage devices are SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface), ATA (AT attachment), SATA (Serial ATA), SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification), and others.
In conventional target systems, for processing input/output (I/O) requests, a network packet is received by a network interface card (NIC or a host bus adapter (HBA)) of a target and then delivered to a central processing unit (CPU) of the target system for processing. When the I/O request is to read data, then the requested data may be stored at a local cache of the target system. Continuous efforts are being made to improve caching performance.